#510: If the Shoe Fits ... A Transformative Laboratory Exhibition. Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, March 10-April 14, 2006

Loague, Katherine, Cultural Analysis

A living work of art is life itself, born from the dynamic fusion of the self (the microcosm) and the universe (the macrocosm) ... If we accept ... the interconnection of all living things, then art becomes the elemental modality through which humans discover their bonds with humans, humanity with nature, and humanity with the universe.--Daisaku Ikeda, Creative life at Academie des Beaux-Arts, June 14, 1989.

#510: If the Shoe Fits...(http://www.artic. edu/webspaces/510iftheshoefits/) as hosted by the Betty Rymer Gallery at the School of the Art Institute (SAIC) of Chicago March 10-April 14, 2006, was developed over the course of two years, plaiting the power of the oldest transformative folktale (Dundes 1982,; Sierra 1992; Warner 1994) with a transformative experience for students around the globe. Taking folk tale AT 510A as its guiding subject and theme, the laboratory exhibition examined the widespread interest in this folk tale. International artists provided their critical assessment and/or retelling of the tale type through drawings, artists' books, sculpture, assemblage, and collaborative murals. Artwork included mentored collaborative student works from Kenya, South Korea, Turkey, Ohio, and Chicago, as well as some produced by pediatric patients working with the Snow City Arts Foundation.

As a laboratory, the exhibition's educational objective was to provide a forum to critically analyze culture and a citizen's place within it. The artwork provided a platform for dialogue that allowed local and distant comparisons of experience and perspective. In presenting works by established artists alongside collaborative student projects, the exhibition's designers intended to challenge the notion of privilege within the gallery's public space. The exhibition sought to construct a democratic landscape where the cultivation and exchange of individual perspectives could be effectively achieved. In this regard, the exhibition represented a critical intervention in the art world trend toward privileging a single point of view.

Case studies and focus groups conducted among school-aged children provided data regarding sustained level of interest in the tale, used to speculate on a projected laboratory/exhibition result. International versions of tale type AT 510A provided students an effective interface with which to explore fixed notions of dating rituals, death, patriarchy, family dynamics (including step- and/or mixed families), the complexities of gender expectations, grief, magic, matriarchy, misogyny, privilege/power, psychological/sociological phenomena, sexuality and/or spirituality that …

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Publication information: Article title: #510: If the Shoe Fits ... A Transformative Laboratory Exhibition. Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, March 10-April 14, 2006. Contributors: Loague, Katherine - Author. Journal title: Cultural Analysis. Volume: 7. Publication date: Annual 2008. Page number: R1+. © 2007 Cultural Analysis. COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale Group.

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